LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 11 - End of the War
Chapter 11. End of the War
“Are you really going, brother?”
Gilsam, trembling, asked as I was warming up.
“Yes.”
“No, you can’t! The Black Mountain Bandits are gathering more and more toward the left wing. The front lines have already collapsed, and you’ll be surrounded for sure!”
Right.
No matter how much their numbers had dwindled, there were still close to a thousand troops remaining.
If we got surrounded by those bastards, it could turn into a hopeless situation.
“I’m still going.”
Even so, I had to go.
I couldn’t just abandon the guys who had followed me, trusting in my stubbornness.
At this, Gilsam stepped in front of me, blocking my way with his body.
“We all knew we were prepared to die long ago. brother, you must survive. The rest of us will buy you time, so just run away.”
“What kind of leader runs away, leaving his subordinates behind?”
“Brother!”
I raised you guys wrong.
To think you’d block your brother’s path like this.
And doing something so foolish.
“I don’t plan on dying.”
I said, shaking the blood off my sword.
“If I take the enemy general’s head, the tide of battle will turn in our favor. All you have to do is signal to the right-wing troops when the time is right.”
“Br-Brother-!”
“Gilsam, just listen to me. Unless you want to get beat to death.”
“······.”
Gilsam gritted his teeth and turned his head away.
“Please come back.”
“Yeah, man. You should’ve said that earlier.”
I patted his shoulder a few times and turned my back.
The key was how long I could hold back those bastards from the rear and how much damage I could inflict.
If the enemy’s formation collapsed, our broken lines would recover. And if I took the general’s head, victory would be nearly ours.
Only then would it all be over.
***
“Big Brother…?”
Unryong wiped the blood from his forehead with the back of his hand as he kept walking.
Could it be that Haryeong found this child?
A little girl with brown hair.
It was definitely the same kid I had seen at the tavern.
I had thought for sure she had died, and I was planning on avenging her.
Looks like I jumped to conclusions.
Haryeong, stationed at the rear, must have found the girl and tried to guide her out of the alley.
That’s when they must’ve been discovered.
Now everything made sense. Why the enemy formation suddenly broke down.
It’s obvious. I really did a poor job raising them.
To risk your life doing something so foolish should have been left to me alone, but at some point, my younger siblings had all turned into idiots.
Unryong sighed deeply but raised his sword.
“Tell your leader to come out already. How long do you plan to waste your troops like this?”
“M-mad dog…”
“Ah, shit. I told you not to call me that damned nickname.”
Unryong shrugged his shoulders while cracking a joke.
Because of that, no one dared to move hastily.
The name “mad dog” had already become a terrifying enough label to freeze the Black Mountain Bandits in place.
Unryong slowly approached Haryeong and handed her the child she was holding.
“B-blood…”
Haryeong was crying.
Tears just kept flowing down her cheeks.
“It’s just a scratch.”
Unryong frowned and pressed her head down.
“More importantly, stop being dramatic and get going. At this rate, Unsam and Baekrang will die first.”
“I-I’m sorry… I let my emotions get the better of me…”
“You foolish girl. I would’ve done the same. Unsam and Baekrang are no different. Yeah, it was a mistake, but only I can do things like this. Understand? It’s like my special privilege. Once this is over, you’ll be in for some serious re-education.”
At those words, Haryeong shuddered.
All she could remember from “education” was the grueling hardships.
But there wasn’t much time to chat.
The Black Mountain Bandits were beginning to regroup and prepare for action.
With a serious look on his face, Unryong spoke again.
“Hurry back and take command of the left wing. I’ll take that bastard’s head. Let’s end this damn battle.”
Haryeong hesitated for a moment but then nodded.
She quickly dashed back the way she had come.
Now, it was just Unryong and the Black Mountain Bandits left.
“D-don’t come any closer!”
With every step Unryong took, they trembled.
“Qing Niujiao will come to save us! You’ll be surrounded and caught, you fool. When that happens, you’ll—”
—Shiiiik!
Unryong’s sword moved.
Now, it was the final stage.
***
Unryong’s momentum didn’t falter easily.
He moved with such nimble footwork that it was impossible to surround him.
The number of Black Mountain Bandits being taken down in individual combat continued to grow, and the left-wing troops, which had been disarrayed, began to regain their strength.
The tide of battle was shifting.
All because of one man.
“Mad dog…”
Qing Niujiao muttered that name unknowingly.
Even in the mud, a dragon can rise.
No matter how humble one’s origins, some are born with innate strength.
And those individuals become generals who dominate an era.
Just like that woman, Lü Bu, who was a terror in Bingzhou.
Qing Niujiao knew all too well how frightening the power of a single individual could be.
Yes, this was a fight where one of us had to die.
And soon enough, a voice rang out.
“Is your leader just going to keep hiding in the back? Get out here, you coward!”
It was an unbearable insult.
Still, this guy was nothing more than a dragon that rose from the mud.
Could he really compare to someone like Lü Bu?
“Are you scared?! Are you scared?!”
There was no need to hesitate any longer.
Qing Niujiao immediately drew his sword and stepped onto the battlefield.
They were getting closer and closer to each other.
As they closed in, an eerie silence fell over the battlefield.
Soon, Qing Niujiao stopped walking and pointed his sword.
“You, who have pushed me to the brink, you are worthy of receiving my blade.”
“Damn it, the guy who’s been hiding all this time is acting all high and mighty now.”
At that moment, his narrow eyes began to turn bloodshot.
Yes, this was a fight fought not with words.
“I’ll make you regret it, you ignorant bastard…”
***
There’s something called “the theory of birth.”
No matter how much you dream of being an athlete, if you’re born wrong, your starting line is different from others.
I was the same.
When I first possessed this body, dreaming of becoming a martial arts master, I quickly realized the sad truth—this body was even weaker than the local women.
I couldn’t even lift the logs that others could with ease, and even a minor illness would have me teetering on the edge of life and death.
It wasn’t just strength.
My stamina, speed—everything was completely lacking.
But I was able to overcome my physical limitations with the ‘Shura Heart Technique’.
Of course, there were significant side effects since I was forcing open the gates that control the flow of energy, but at least I could move quickly like other martial artists.
Still, I was weak.
I figured I wouldn’t win if I fought recklessly, crossing blades with the enemy.
So, I decided not to use a direct approach.
As long as I could sever their head in one strike, victory would be mine. Why bother clashing swords?
“What… what is that…?”
Qing Niujiao stared at me in disbelief.
His right shoulder had already been cut, making normal movement impossible.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“What kind of dark sorcery did you use?!”
Damn, why’s he yelling so loudly?
My ears are ringing.
What he saw wasn’t sorcery.
It was just martial arts.
As expected of a boss-level opponent, his skills were good enough to warrant his loudmouth.
He fought differently from the low-level scrubs I had dealt with until now, reacting well to my sword.
But my specialty wasn’t crossing blades in the first place.
A life-or-death duel isn’t about exchanging skills; it’s over when one person dies.
The once-blazing sun disappeared behind the clouds.
In the shadowed scenery, I could see the trembling pupils of Qing Niujiao.
I spread my legs shoulder-width apart, ready to charge in.
“It can’t be… No way…”
To be honest, I was dead tired.
Rolling around here, getting hit there, and the side effects of the Shura Heart Technique had my body aching all over.
So, let’s finish this now.
I kicked off the ground.
Faster, faster.
When I looked up, I saw Qing Niujiao’s face, flushed red.
“Mad dog!”
A sword strike came at my side. I tilted my blade to deflect it.
He immediately pivoted on his left leg, swinging his sword in a wide arc.
-Kaang!
The sound of metal clashing echoed.
Our distance widened again, and I was the first to charge.
I barely managed to lift my arm, which was near its limit. Because of that, the sword aiming for his neck slowed significantly.
“A flimsy strike! This ends now!”
He eagerly moved to block my attack, his face filled with excitement.
But his form was completely broken. If he managed to block my strike, I’d leave an opening.
In battle, even a small gap could determine life and death.
Just like with Qing Niujiao now.
“What…?”
The sword that should have flowed to the right disappeared. And then, suddenly, it accelerated from an unexpected angle.
“…!”
Qing Niujiao dropped his sword. His shoulder had been sliced.
“…Hah, it wasn’t an illusion… You had two swords…”
That was also an illusion.
It only appeared as though I had two swords.
Linked Illusion Sword.
The basic technique of the Phantom Sword, it shifts the blade’s trajectory at the last moment, like a whip, creating an illusion. To an inexperienced opponent, it would indeed look like two swords.
“What’s your name…?”
“Unryong.”
Slowly, very slowly, Qing Niujiao bent down to retrieve his fallen sword.
“Damn it… To think I’d meet someone like you in this backwater. The heavens are truly indifferent.”
“Quit talking nonsense and give up.”
“Give up? Don’t make me laugh. The result has already been decided.”
He chuckled bitterly and pointed his sword at his own stomach.
-Thud!
What followed was simple.
“It’s unpleasant… Dying at the hands of a strong man like you isn’t shameful, but it’s still infuriating.”
I pressed my blade against Qing Niujiao’s neck as he bled profusely.
He, too, was once a commoner.
He may have been someone’s husband, someone’s father.
When the local governors, who were supposed to protect them, became little more than bandits; when the Ten Attendants took over the court, and the Han Dynasty began to decay…
The people who held the nation together were its commoners, and he had likely been one of them.
So, what has changed?
Officials continued to drain the lifeblood of the people.
The eunuchs, ever hungry for power, paid no attention to the suffering below them.
Even after those corrupt eunuchs were killed, look at the new hope—Dong Zhuo, nothing more than another parasite.
A tree rotten to its core would never bloom again.
No matter how hard one tried, a rotten tree could never grow anew.
All for a grain of rice.
It was just that one grain that was lacking.
To survive, they had to steal food, trample others, and live in disgrace.
The starving fools were the people of this nation, and those who tried to escape that fate became bandits.
“Yes… it’s all over now… I can finally meet everyone…”
-Shiiik!
But not like this.
“You bastard, trying to play the sympathy card now?”
As I lifted Qing Niujiao’s head high into the air, the battlefield fell silent in an instant.
The remaining enemies, seemingly having lost the will to fight, either collapsed where they stood or began to flee.
The central and right-wing forces were also joining in, and now only the cleanup remained.
Yes, everything was over.
I tossed his head aside and sheathed my sword.
“Hah, you crazy bastard. I wondered where you disappeared to, but…”
“Lü Bu.”
Suddenly, Lü Bu, smiling with her teeth bared, stood behind me, her ‘Fangtian Huaji’ resting on her shoulder.
Why did she look so spotless?
Anyone would think she had just gone for a stroll.
“Big Brother!”
And as I turned again, I saw Haryeong, covered in wounds, rushing toward me, sobbing loudly.
I waved lightly at her.
It was, in a way, a declaration of the war’s end.